im REALLY new to cars and all so bare with me here im sorry if i suck
i had a friend who told me something about the cold air intakes something like if you drive them in the rain your engine wil lget water in it someting like that
oh really sweet (never trust an asian!) hah jk hes like my best friend were just lall noobs noone aroudn here knows anything about cars... im tryting to learn doing the best i can im thinking about isntalling one what kind ?for a v6 and how hard would it be to install
Some cold air intakes go down into the fenderwell (none that I've seen in our cars). They could potentially get wet from water being kicked up by the tires or driving in deep water. I think that's more of a problem with imports.
An intake is a pretty easy intall... 15 minutes or so.
The C&L intake is a great product, but it will require that you purchase a handheld computer tuner as well because it pulls in so much air that the air/fuel ratio needs to be adjusted.
There are several companies that offer the cold air intake (CAI) and tuner as a combo for about $550-650 dollars. In my opinion, this is the best mod to make when you're just starting out. The performance gains are very noticeable!
Good luck! Tim
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C&L CAI Bamachips XCal2 Vortex Duals Street Scene GT Grille 3dCarbon Ducktail 18" GT Fanblades Steeda Ultra Lites and more...
thanks for the info on the intake, that was my first thought to get a cold air intake and a tune. I dont know anything about tunes and i hear that C&L intake and SCT X-cal tune make a great combo but im planning on adding other mods aswell after would that require the car to be retuned?
and also how does tuning the car work exactly i know you get some electronic equiptment and it somehow messes iwth the cars computer but thats it?
Part of what makes a tuner such a great first mod is that it can be retuned every time you make another substantial mod. Some examples of things that you'd want to retune for are: larger tires, gear ratio changes, a supercharger/turbo, etc. Many mods won't even require a retune; for example, 99% of exhaust system mods don't require a retune (also called a reflash) because they don't change how much air the engine can take IN (and therefore don't throw off the air/fuel ratio).
A tuner is basically a handheld device (looks like a primitive sort of gameboy) with a big cable that comes out of the bottom and a small LCD screen. You plug the cable into the port on your car (it's near the floor below the steering wheel) and the tuner turns right on. From there you can load a custom tune, check diagnostics, interpret engine trouble codes, and other fun stuff.
A custom tune basically reflashes your car's CPU. You should get tunes written by a qualified shop (I like Doug at Bamachips) or take your car into a place with a dyno (dynamometer) to get a custom tune for your car. A good tuner like Doug can tweak the power bands of your ride to give you better torque and horsepower across the board, especially with a good CAI in your engine compartment!
As for the actual install, the tuner takes 5 seconds to plug in and just a couple minutes to load custom tunes. The cold air intake took me about 45 minutes or an hour but I've heard from others that 15 or 20 is more the average (I am both inexperienced and a perfectionist, so mods always take me a long time!)
Good luck with whatever you decide! Tim
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C&L CAI Bamachips XCal2 Vortex Duals Street Scene GT Grille 3dCarbon Ducktail 18" GT Fanblades Steeda Ultra Lites and more...
Anyone notice a change in shifting (not as much 'kick-down' n auto) after changing to GT takeoff duals..? maybe I'm focused on the engine sound now that Ihear it more thru the duals, but I feel slower (althought the speedometer tells me otherwise...)
When you buy a hand held tuner does it come with tunes preinstalled? I could do a lot of damage with something like that ...probably make my car spontaniously combust I would like to get A C&L with a good tune but I am more of a here's what I want you to install for me please dont screw my wallet to bad !!
When you buy a hand held tuner does it come with tunes preinstalled? I could do a lot of damage with something like that ...probably make my car spontaniously combust I would like to get A C&L with a good tune but I am more of a here's what I want you to install for me please dont screw my wallet to bad !!
Yeah, when you order one, you'll give the place you order it from your computer code and certain info about your car they'll want to know, such as existing mods. They will program the tuner for you. All you'll have to do is plug it in, and push a couple buttons, and you'll be good to go. :)
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MRT Aero-Turbine Axleback Exhaust MRT Hood Struts C&L Intake and XCallII Tuner combo from Alternative Auto
Yeah, when you order one, you'll give the place you order it from your computer code and certain info about your car they'll want to know, such as existing mods. They will program the tuner for you. All you'll have to do is plug it in, and push a couple buttons, and you'll be good to go. :)
Talk about coincidence! I was actually Googling the 'net for this very info today. They say they come pre-programmed with like three or four codes in the literature, but they never tell you if there's anything else, or specialized knowledge necessary, to do this. Do these pre-programmed codes set everything? Like one of the guides I was looking at had all these different categories, i.e., idle rpms, fuel/air ratio, etc. Or are these things that need to be set separately?
Talk about coincidence! I was actually Googling the 'net for this very info today. They say they come pre-programmed with like three or four codes in the literature, but they never tell you if there's anything else, or specialized knowledge necessary, to do this. Do these pre-programmed codes set everything? Like one of the guides I was looking at had all these different categories, i.e., idle rpms, fuel/air ratio, etc. Or are these things that need to be set separately?
Yashar--Thanks for reading my mind!
Technically, you shouldn't need to change any settings on a preprogrammed tune as long as everything stays the same. It should have everything it needs programmed into it properly already. I'm not going to claim I know everything that gets programmed into it, but if you just ordered it, and you gave all the info they needed, you should be fine and not need to change anything on the tune. Doesn't mean you can't. But technically, you shouldn't need to. :)
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MRT Aero-Turbine Axleback Exhaust MRT Hood Struts C&L Intake and XCallII Tuner combo from Alternative Auto
I think my mind is made up. Just in case...you know...Murphy's law... one thing I found out during my search that, if nothing else, there's an SCT dealer with a huge dyno set up in the next town over from me.
I think my mind is made up. Just in case...you know...Murphy's law... one thing I found out during my search that, if nothing else, there's an SCT dealer with a huge dyno set up in the next town over from me.
lol
Nice. A custom tune from a dyno shop is always better than a canned tune. That's very cool that you have one close. :)
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MRT Aero-Turbine Axleback Exhaust MRT Hood Struts C&L Intake and XCallII Tuner combo from Alternative Auto
ORIGINAL: jtstudley What happens if you dont get a tuner but install the CAI anyway?
Which CAI are you looking to purchase? A couple of them are designed to work with the stock programming (the K&N jumps to mind), but others (like the C&L) require retuning.
If you install the CAI without a tuner, you will mess up your a/f (air-to-fuel) ratio. Basically, the larger inlet pipe and the colder (and therefore denser) air that a CAI provides means your engine is pulling in a greater amount of air than it did stock. In order to compensate for this increase, your computer needs to know to add more fuel to the mixture as well.
I never even turned on my car with the CAI until the tune was loaded (based on advice from Doug at Bamachips), but I can tell you what I've heard about potential problems you'd encounter. First, you wouldn't get the benefits from the CAI because the lack of sufficient fuel would hold back your performance gains. Secondly, you might encounter sputtering in your engine, and potentially even stalling, especially at WOT (wide open throttle; i.e., gas pedal all the way to the floor).
Bottom line is: either get the tuner or install a CAI that's specifically engineered to work with the stock computer.
Tim
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C&L CAI Bamachips XCal2 Vortex Duals Street Scene GT Grille 3dCarbon Ducktail 18" GT Fanblades Steeda Ultra Lites and more...
Yeah i was already thinking K&N. i dont need anything super fancy because ill never be able to hide the fact that i have a V6. I could use a little better mileage and its something easy to install that i can spend my money on. Are there specific K&Ns that dont need tuning? thanks
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Joined: 10/20/2005 From: Seattle, WA Status: offline
quote:
ORIGINAL: Yashar
im REALLY new to cars and all so bare with me here im sorry if i suck
i had a friend who told me something about the cold air intakes something like if you drive them in the rain your engine wil lget water in it someting like that
any truth?
well i see what he may be getting too, and it does hold some truth to the off road rallyers (WRX's etc) if you have an almost completely enclosed box around your intake, water can fill up the entire box and create problems
this really does not happy much unless you are going through some BIG puddles though, so we should not be worried at all
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cold air intake - 
Talk about coincidence! I was actually Googling the 'net for this very info today. They say they come pre-programmed with like three or four codes in the literature, but they never tell you if there's anything else, or specialized knowledge necessary, to do this. Do these pre-programmed codes set everything? Like one of the guides I was looking at had all these different categories, i.e., idle rpms, fuel/air ratio, etc. Or are these things that need to be set separately? 
